al7478:bloatedgut:
fatboyslimfast:You should charge a fiver an ad Andrew - far better value that that auction site, and then it would pay for itself in a short space of time!!!
Thing is that if you charge a fiver per ad then you are not making yourself competitive with that "other" site so whilst you will attract the hi-fi enthusiast and the disgruntled the main stream will simply not make the conversion across.....
There are a few other problems was well, like because the classified ad's here will be a defined price/o.n.o. adverts Ebay (oops sorry, 'that' place) is an auction so how many bargain hunters are going to be attracted away from that.....?
Ebay also pretty much guarantees (if you sell sensibly) that your hi-fi will be gone in 5/7/10 days..... where as a 'classic' advert could be there for weeks (that you have paid a £5 for).
So far I may seem like the C.E.O. of Ebay.... I am not. I would love for Ebid or even What Hi Fi to become so competitive that I never have to go there again..... but the bottom line is that Ebay have kind of plugged a gap in the market for a high efficiency selling site that allows both the buyer and the seller able to feel that they have the best price.... it is because of that that Ebay exploit that position so much and provide terrible customer service..... and I think that it is because of that that a classic 'classifieds' pages would provide so little reward for a company like What Hi Fi...... it is sad but I can understand why there might be higher priorities here.
im not sure the idea is - or should ever be, for that matter - to have an auction section run by what hifi that competes with the other site, as people seem sto be calling it (thought we could say ebay? theyre not a competing site anyway...); Nor would i have thought it should be a place for the mainstream. many other sites have them in an "all geeks together" kinda way, and dont think such a section here need aspire to any more...?
Well I was not saying that What Hi Fi should set up an auction
site.... I was thinking about if they added a 'classic' classifeds
site...
If one was set up then I would not imagine that it would
be for the mainstream, but that does not change the fact that it has to
operate at a certain level in order to make it worth doing.... and my
point there was that a mainstream and successful competitor might mean
that it never reaches it potential. The people of the forum will not
make a classifieds section viable.... you have to attract people from
other sources and if they are all out on Ebay that will not happen (it
is a consideration for the What Hi Fi team because if they are going to
impart resources setting up the 'classifieds' then they have to be
damned certain that it will work).